I got the replacement draw bar casting cleaned up and installed on the base of the model pretty darn quick (again, poor Marty and all he had to do to get his draw bar installed). I too was missing a horse, and I was able to find a replacement in the spare parts bin and got that sorted out. The original Lesney decals on the old model were pretty good so I soaked them off and later reinstalled them. The boiler buffed up very nice and looks pretty good. I did the horses in the rare "gray" (again another issue I have with color descriptions as there is nothing "gray" about them) and I matched that dirty cream color pretty well. A little harness, mane and tail detailing and the horses were ready to go. The driver had long since gone AWOL and the one lone remaining fireman looked like he had a run in with the French King and was headless.
So, I still need a driver and two firemen. Steve Flowers is closed again due to Covid, my friend Rob across the channel is on holiday until August and Tony Howden down in OZ wants over twice as much for the three men as Steve does (plus his shipping is more expensive). I decided to look on epay and see what's available. Wow, some guy from Canada must think these things are made out of gold! he wants $27 USD for the firemen and his shipping is as much as if they were coming from England. Steve charges $1.35 USD each for the firemen - who can afford $9.00 USD for one little plastic fireman??? OK, back on topic ... the wife says that whenever I do get the firemen, I can NOT list this one on ebay, she wants it for her TinMan Matchbox collection


